had always the stomach-ache ?" Raoul began to laugh.
"Well, my dear friend, Louis XIV.

always has the heart-ache; it is deplorable to see a king sighing from morning till night without saying once in the course of the day, _ventre-saint-gris! corboef!_ or anything to rouse one." "Was that the reason why you quitted the service, monsieur le chevalier ?" "Yes." "But you yourself, M.d'Artagnan, are throwing the handle after the axe; you will not make a fortune." "Who?
I ?" replied D'Artagnan, in a careless tone; "I am settled--I had some family property." Raoul looked at him.

The poverty of D'Artagnan was proverbial.

A Gascon, he exceeded in ill-luck all the gasconnades of France and Navarre; Raoul had a hundred times heard Job and D'Artagnan named together, as the twins Romulus and Remus.

D'Artagnan caught Raoul's look of astonishment.
"And has not your father told you I have been in England ?" "Yes, monsieur le chevalier." "And that I there met with a very lucky chance ?" "No, monsieur, I did not know that." "Yes, a very worthy friend of mine, a great nobleman, the viceroy of Scotland and Ireland, has endowed me with an inheritance." "An inheritance ?" "And a good one, too." "Then you are rich ?" "Bah!" "Receive my sincere congratulation." "Thank you! Look, that is my house." "Place de Greve ?" "Yes; don't you like this quarter ?" "On the contrary, the look-out over the water is pleasant.